YM778.TV Chapter 32: Clash
The Tiger Demon sensed him immediately. As a Beast Demon, its instincts were primed. It knew that a challenger was making its way towards this place and the beast responded in kind.
It roared at Cedric\'s position, releasing a potent sound of aggression and terror, yet Cedric wasn\'t fazed. To him, the threatening roar of the beast was nothing more than hot air, a foul one at that.
When they saw each other, both disappeared from their previous positions. There was no need to size up or threaten the other party, they immediately kicked into a fight which resulted in shockwaves rocking the foundation of the facility.
The Tiger Demon\'s paw landed on one of the pillars supporting the building, shattering it with just raw power alone. Cedric wasn\'t caught though, he utilized his stature wisely, as well as his flexibility to stay out of its way.
\'Tier 3 at least...somewhere around Lv.4 to Lv.6\' Cedric mused inwardly as he analyzed his opponent\'s raw power.
For someone like him, who\'s a Tier 1 Lv.2 Swordsman, this goes above and beyond his pay grade. Anybody in his shoes wouldn\'t hesitate to retreat at the sight of this monstrosity. Not Cedric though...
He knows that he\'s outclassed in sheer power. Even with his upgraded Aptitude, there\'s no competing with a beast like this. But that doesn\'t necessarily mean that it\'s a hopeless battle.
From the moment he set eyes upon this beast, he already saw the flaws in its body. His mind already developed several methods to combat it effectively, all he needed to do was to apply them here, and that\'s why he was not afraid.
Evading the beast\'s attack, Cedric didn\'t hesitate to immediately launch a counterattack. Brandishing his sword, he made a deep cut into its flesh, on its outstretched arms specifically, invoking the beast\'s ire.
Another paw swiped in his direction but once again, Cedric evaded it with grace and calmness, completely unbothered and confident that it won\'t harm him.
Due to the nature of his dodge, it placed him closer to the beast\'s body, which Cedric capitalized on. He lifted his sword and poked its clavicle, earning a pained whine from the beast.
Cedric didn\'t stop there...
While the beast took some time to assess the damage done to itself, Cedric took out something from his Inventory. He then hopped to gain some elevation and pushed something into the beast\'s mouth.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
Before the beast knew it, it felt a strong blow on its chin, which caused the beast to swallow whatever Cedric fed to it. The ticking sound continued and after five seconds, an explosion—, well...it\'s more accurate to say that an implosion, rocked the beast\'s entire existence.
As it turns out, Cedric fed it a grenade. He knew that the demon\'s body would be tough, but the same shouldn\'t be same at its internal organs, and that in itself was a weakness that even Beast Demons wouldn\'t be able to ignore, but...
"Oh come on! That\'s not enough to blow you up?" Cedric whined as he charged again.
Sure he used a low-levelled explosive, but to think that the beast only coughed blood from it was simply absurd. He obviously would like to do that again but the Tiger Demon was already alerted, so the chances of that happening were very low. If he ever had the chance though, he\'d probably make it eat an incendiary grenade instead.
Since feeding it explosives didn\'t work, Cedric moved on to the other method he has, and this one should be more reliable compared the to previous one.
Cedric began surrounding the Tiger Demon through sheer speed. Don\'t be mistaken, the beast was a fast and Cedric would bet that it could react to his speed, but he wasn\'t concerned about that.
He did this to agitate the beast. The irritated it gets, the more telegraphed its attacks would be and it would be easier for him to implement is follow-up method to take it down.
Once it was obvious that he had the full ire of the beast, Cedric\'s eyes flashed dangerously. He waited for the perfect timing before launching an opportune strike at the demon\'s joints.
With his sword flowing with Sword Ki, his blade didn\'t meet any obstructions. Sure, the beast\'s body was tough, but with how sharp his Sword Ki was, it was akin to a paper.
Cedric lodged his sword into its arm, with a grunt, he jerked the handle of his sword, causing the beast\'s arm to be dislocated. And just to be extra sure, he twisted his sword before pulling it out, leaving a gaping wound behind.
With that, the chances of that arm recovering while in battle would drastically be reduced. Cedric effectively lessened the attacks coming his way while also impeding the beast\'s mobility.
The Tiger Demon growled painfully at the injury it took. If looks could only kill, Cedric must\'ve probably dropped dead at this point.
In the mind of the beast, it couldn\'t even begin to comprehend the situation. Never in its wildest dreams did it think that a mere Human like this could be this strong?
Well, truthfully the human wasn\'t strong. The beast\'s instincts were accurate and it said that the Human was certainly weaker than it. But in reality, the human was only outmatched through raw power. Everything else was fair game.
The Human was quicker and more flexible. He\'s also more cunning than the beast expected. Plus, the human had the means to bypass its fleshly superiority so the Human was dangerous.
This injury will make this battle more challenging, yet the beast couldn\'t afford to back down. It has been given a task that precedes itself, and if it couldn\'t take down a puny human such as this one, then there would be no hope of succeeding with that task.
The Tiger Demon growled and pounced at him with renewed vigor. Unfortunately, since one of its arms was dangling uselessly on the side, its danger significantly lowered.
Cedric still took the battle seriously, but he\'s more reserved now. He wasn\'t playing with his food like this, in fact, it\'s the opposite.
A cornered animal will bear its fangs, even domesticated ones, and Cedric wasn\'t interested in experiencing its wrath by courting his own death like that so he remained careful.
Another chance presented itself and once again, Cedric disable its other upper arm. With another injury like that, the Tiger Demon\'s lethality took a huge drop.
It was then that Cedric released his own killing intent, cowing the demon ever so slightly with a show of resolve. Cedric sent numerous shallow stabs on the demon\'s body, leaving it wounded and bleeding.
The Tiger Demon did its best to avoid his sword stabs but it failed miserably. Cedric\'s attacks were too quick and sharp to be evaded, especially in its current state.
Cedric seemingly fell into a frenzy as he did not stop stabbing the demon. His killing intent rose too high that the demon felt death beckoning to it.
That\'s when the demon realized its mortality. It could feel its demise coming quickly. The demon also realized that if it were to fall here, then its task would fail, and its comrades in the afterlife would certainly be disappointed.
So, fearing that would happen, the Tiger Demon stopped hesitating and fled as far as it possibly could, away from this scary human.
"Eh?"
And that\'s certainly surprised Cedric. He didn\'t understand what the demon was thinking and even if he could, he wouldn\'t have cared. He had no time for sympathies here since this was a battle, one that he simply couldn\'t lose.
So, Cedric immediately followed the fleeing demon. Which was honestly disorienting for him as a demon of that size and power was running away from him. He never knew something like this was even remotely possible but here we are...
Cedric\'s mind calculated the route of the Demon. He then figured out that the demon was heading towards the bunker in the basement, where most of his fellow convicts and wardens were hunkering down, which alerted him.
He had no idea why this demon was heading there, all he knew was that, whatever its goal was, it absolutely could not happen. So either by hook or by crook, he will kill this demon before it arrives there.
Pushing his footwork ever more, he was able to catch up with the beast. His determination to kill it was displayed in the way of numerous stabs on its back, leaving more bleeding wounds in the process.
The beast whined pitifully from pain but it didn\'t stop running. In desperation, it managed to reach its destination by punching a huge hole as a shortcut.
However, it didn\'t expect to spend all of its remaining longevity with that blow. As such, even though it managed to arrive at its target location, it died before even doing anything.
And just for extra insurance, Cedric stabbed it on the back of its head, driving his blade straight to its brain. The beast then fell, not being able to do its task as Cedric stood on top of its corpse.
He then looked at the bewildered stare of the crowd and muttered:
"He\'s not here either..."